Cities & Architecture

Cyclist in a bottle

*Cyclist in a bottle*
Canon EOS300 + Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400

(As I leave Hong Kong this week I wanted to share an experiment, inspired by the wonderful series by Chris Relander entitled Bottled. These are film double exposures of scenes of Hong Kong that will always for me evoke the city I loved and am now leaving. This is my first ever attempt at the technique, and it needs perfecting, but I hope you will see them as the work in progress that it is). 

I remember my first few weeks in Hong Kong. I was convalescing from a major operation, and tried to walk around everyday as much as I could to get better faster. The Shelter St. tram stop was our local one, and that day I didn’t have a camera with me. I saw this cyclist in front of a tram on the tram line and wished I’d had a zoom lens to shoot it with. On my last week, I saw nearly the same scene at the nearby Victoria Park tram stop, and captured it in a bottle. A circle complete…

Graham St. in a bottle

*Graham St. in a bottle*
Canon EOS300 + Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400

(As I leave Hong Kong this week I wanted to share an experiment, inspired by the wonderful series by Chris Relander entitled Bottled. These are film double exposures of scenes of Hong Kong that will always for me evoke the city I loved and am now leaving. This is my first ever attempt at the technique, and it needs perfecting, but I hope you will see them as the work in progress that it is). 

Graham St. in central has this mural that I found striking when I first arrived, after having seen it in one of Kai and Lok’s videos. But every time I went there, other people were taking photos as well and I came to see it as a little trite. More recently, as the mural degraded, less people were interested in taking photos and I became more so. So it made sense to bottle it as well as a piece of the Hong Kong that was.

Tram in a bottle

*Tram in a bottle*
Canon EOS300 + Fuji Superia X-TRA 400

(As I leave Hong Kong this week I wanted to share an experiment, inspired by the wonderful series by Chris Relander entitled Bottled. These are film double exposures of scenes of Hong Kong that will always for me evoke the city I loved and am now leaving. This is my first ever attempt at the technique, and it needs perfecting, but I hope you will see them as the work in progress that it is). 

The Hong Kong trams are special. Many of them are still old, wooden and rickety and they’re my favorites. A tram in Hong Kong to me is not just a way of getting somewhere, it’s an experience in and of itself. One I was keen to bottle and keep in my souvenir cabinet.

Lantern in a bottle

*Lantern in a bottle*
Canon EOS300 + Fujifilm Superia X-TRA 400

(As I leave Hong Kong this week I wanted to share an experiment, inspired by the wonderful series by Chris Relander entitled Bottled. These are film double exposures of scenes of Hong Kong that will always for me evoke the city I loved and am now leaving. This is my first ever attempt at the technique, and it needs perfecting, but I hope you will see them as the work in progress that it is). 

Tin Hau Temple (at least the temple of that name in Tin Hau, there are many temples dedicated to Tin Hau around Hong Kong) is a place I photographed many times. It used to be on my way home as we lived in the street just above it. Felt like these lanterns needed to be bottled for a souvenir to take with me.

The clock, the door and the ladder


*The clock, the door and the ladder*
Cyanotype on Bockingford HP 300gsm

One of the things I love in the Hong Kong backalleys is a very particular jumble of odd items that I’ve only seen here. This was shot in Tai Hang and is very representative of those backalleys. You might think that this could be anywhere, but trust me, only in Hong Kong.

Boxed-In Blues

*Boxed-In Blues*
Cyanotype on Bockingford HP 300gsm

This was my first attempt at a large format street photo on cyanotype (this is an A2 size image). And it got me so excited that I’ve been revisiting my Hong Kong photos for some soon to be delivered prints. I loved the original image, I think I love the cyanotype print even more.

Choices, choices…

*Choices, choices…*
Cyanotype on Bockinford HP 300gsm

As my time in Hong Kong draws to a close I am drawn to revisiting some of my black and white images and produce cyanotype prints with them. I like this image of a selection of Pu’er tea in a store in central…

Cyan Tram

*Cyan Tram*
Cyanotype on Bockingford HP 300gsm

Trams are not unique to HK, but I do associate the double decker trams painted with garish adverts with the city. This high contrast shot of a tram in Wan Chai makes for a real punchy cyanotype, what do you think ?

Spares

*Spares*
Wista 45 VX + Ilford Delta 100

I finally got into Large Format photography. Last week I shot four sheets of 4×5, two out in the streets and two in the studio. This is the second image from the street shoot, the spare parts of Hong-Kong mini-buses in the street outside a garage in Wong Chuk Hang.

Pensive

*Pensive*
Fuji GW690iii + Ilford FP4+

One of the things that moves me the most in cemeteries is the derelict or broken tombs. The unassailable proof that you will be forgotten over time. I was struck by this statue, the main subject having survived, but the backdrop badly broken.